Water is now the most precious commodity in the west and some rice growers are considering selling their water, rather than conserving it.
One second-generation rice farmer tells the New York Times that he is choosing to sell almost all of it to the neighboring farms where water is even more scarce.
Rice water transfers have been an important part of California’s drought coping strategy. Rice producers are uniquely advantaged and tend to have first dibs on water out of the Sacramento River before it is channeled through canals down south. Rice growers in the Sacramento Valley will produce 20 percent less of the crop this year.
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